Car gallery vs. garage? Ralph Lauren shows how it’s done
By Straight-Six, published on 17 January 2011
It’s always entertained us to no end just how much men love to collect. Anything. And the older we get, the more expensive our little hobbies become: watches, cars, art, property, businesses, partners (and children), Russian hookers…uh, well, you catch our drift. We apparently are rarely, if ever, satisfied with the concept of less is more. Perhaps this is all part of the human condition, eh? Perpetual dissatisfaction and craving for more. Of everything.
Now, let’s talk for a moment about how all this applies to cars, shall we? You see, we’ve noticed that while all of us can list the kind of expensive and powerful automotive steeds we’d buy if we won the lottery (what dumb schmucks we are!) we apparently give no thought to what we’d do with them once we had them. The preferred dream garages are either monumental warehouses (Jay Leno’s), converted stables (evo’s Harry Metcalfe), barns, etc., or over-decorated Tonka Toy-like garages that smack of plain silliness.
Displaying little taste or penchant for creating an environment worthy of their millions of euros of fine cars, guys tend to drop the ball and/or regress completely when it comes to harbouring their rides. So, should it be a surprise that the man who has created the finest automotive gallery space we’ve ever seen should have made a living from luxury clothing and a finely honed sense of aesthetics? Who also managed to discard his birth name of Ralph Rueben Lifshitz for something so country, so gentile it hurts?
Ralph Lauren is renowned for his flawless and peerless automotive collection of some 60 cars, and we won’t get into an analysis of them today. No. For what fascinates and seduces us almost as much as the cars is the gallery he has created to showcase them. And what a gallery it is! It should have been a no-brainer to create a modern art gallery backdrop for a car collection this fabulous, but RL got there first.
D.A.D Garage, as it’s named is one of those places you’d love to be locked inside for weeks on end. Sure, you would have to host the occasional meeting to maintain a semblance of productivity (note the meeting tables/chairs in the pics?). But all you’d honestly want to do is quietly navigate the raised platforms and their automotive works of art and give thanks to those who created them and the one man who understood how best to share them.
Leaving us with just one remaining question: “D.A.D, can we borrow the keys to the Ferrari P2/3?”
PS Yes, we know Vanity Fair did a spread on this already, but we have day jobs. And Vanity Fair rules. And it’s worth seeing these pics again. So there.
Car gallery vs. garage? Ralph Lauren shows how it’s done
It’s always entertained us to no end just how much men love to collect. Anything. And the older we get, the more expensive our little hobbies become: watches, cars, art, property, businesses, partners (and children), Russian hookers…uh, well, you catch our drift. We apparently are rarely, if ever, satisfied with the concept of less is [...]
5 Responses to “Car gallery vs. garage? Ralph Lauren shows how it’s done”
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Interesting point about the modifications. Reminds me of the debate about the likes of Project-X and Bamford modifying watches. Wrong? I tend to think so but somehow painting a car doesn’t feel quite the same as changing the finish on a watch.
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Straight-Six
18 January 2011
Ivan,
Glad you’re drooling over it as much as we are. Your eagle eyes did indeed pick up on a key issue of RL’s collection: he has them the exact colour he wants, no more, no less. Purists and collectors will indeed value original anything over even immaculate personal touches, like paint/leather/etc. And many collectible cars are indeed painted different colours several times over the course of their ownership. But you can always reference the original paint job.
So, did RL commit an act of haute sin by repainting his Bugatti in black or modifying the colours and trim on his other cars? Well, before anyone pisses on his parade I suggest they look long and hard at the result. It’s utterly spectacular. Truth is, he’s actually done it better in many cases. He’s Ralph Lifshitz!
As to the Fool’s point about changing the design/finish of a watch a la Bamford and Project-X, well, I would agree that this is considerably more difficult to swallow. In the end you have a modded watch that the manufacturer won’t ever touch. And while Rolex does exactly that most of the time with its own unmolested vintage pieces, I have to say that collectible Rolexes with slight variations and defects hold far greater appeal than a modern modded version, no matter how great they actually look…
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Ivan Y
18 January 2011
Thanks guys! I quite like the changes that RL made (I mean, if anyone had credentials to justify it, it’s him), but we’ve all been to various forums where people get way too hardcore about something, so I was just imagining some guy typing up a four-page missive about RL committing a heresy by changing something
With regards to Bamford and Project-X, I like some of their work, but those aren’t investment pieces or anything like that — it basically allows you to get a bespoke Rolex _you_ want as opposed to what Rolex offers. And, frankly, B. and P-X might get a lot of business because current Rolex lineup is… err, questionable.
P.S. Perhaps, it’s the age thing and I’m too young for Rolex color schemes. Not that I’m opposed to colorful watches. Recently came across ‘Dink’s article on Omega’s “Banana” Seamaster 200 (http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/2008/12/15/omega-banana-seamaster-200-the-diving-watch-for-the-individu.html) and I’m rather smitten
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Absolutely stunning… It is great to turn your garage into a gallery if you can, I guess.
Ivan Y
17 January 2011
Just read VF’s piece today (http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2011/01/ralph-lauren-garage-201101). It really is an amazing place that oozes style and puts cars first.
One interesting item in VFs article is that Ralph Lauren actually modified some cars (paint color/shade, leather) to be more to his liking. Now, it’s hard to argue with RL’s taste, but a lot of people prefer all-original cars, so I get a kick of imagining some car nuts writing vitriolic remarks about RL “ruining” 1934 Type 59 Grand Prix Bugatti by using black instead of light blue paint